We're Back Pitches
by Daughter Of The Chaos
Summary: Emily Junk was until last year a freshman in Barden and now all responsibility to lead the Bellas in their competitions was on her back. There was only one small problem: she had no idea what she was doing (and apparently neither the girls by her side). Meanwhile, Beca Mitchell is faced with the problem that she thought that would never bother her again.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey, so this is my first fic about Pitch Perfect and I hope you all enjoy it! And english is not my first language, so forgive me if there are any mistakes.**

"Welcome, ladies and gentlemen to another edition of the Southeastern Regional competition! We all are excited to see what we'll have this year! Right, John!?" The commentator, with her blond locks impeccably arranged in a complex hairdo, heralded excited the expectations for the presentations. It would be an year full of new surprises since all the universities were counting on a renewal of their ranks and the a cappella groups were directly affected by this new wave of freshmen.

"We are, Gail! I am ready to be surprised today! And talking about surprises, all the eyes will be focused on the Barden Bellas, current champions of the World Championship!" Checking his microphone and has been sure that sounds perfect the man in his forties wove his comments.

"Yes, but the Barden Bellas are coming with a brand new group! Their leader's Emily Junk was a freshman last year, so it's going to be hard for them overcome the old Bellas."

"They sure won't. Had born so many talented women in the same generation was already a miracle, I hardly doubt this will going to happen again so soon." John said, his smile couldn't hide the nature of his awful commentary. Gail, by his side, frowned when heard what the man had just said, but doesn't say a word in response. She knew that left him with his ignorance was the best she could do. Besides, she was already more than familiar with this sort of thing after so many years working with him.

On stage, the presenter of the competition opened space for a group of girls. The crowd applauded in anticipation noting the movement of the girls and their positioning that indicated that they would begin at any moment.

 ** _I stand here waiting for_ **

_**You to bang the gong**_

 _ **To crash the critic saying**_

 _ **Is it right or is it wrong?**_

 _ **If only fame had an I. V**_

 _ **Baby could I bear**_

 _ **Being away from you,**_

 _ **I found the vein, put it in here**_

 _ **I live for the applause, applause, applause**_

 _ **I live for the applause-plause**_

 _ **Live for the applause-plause**_

 _ **Live for the** **way that you cheer and scream for me**_

 _ **The applause, applause, applause**_

"Oh, John! I think you'll regret your words. This is The Wrecking Belles, the new all-female group of Barden. Looks like the Bellas will have a direct rival and this had never happened before." Gail said in a low voice, like she was worried about interrupting the girls that had started to sing "Applause" with flawless dance moves and perfect rhythm. The music choice thrilled the audience that was screaming and applauding motivated by the song lyrics. "And yes, I think their name is purposeful."

"What a strange inspiration..." Said the man who owned the flashing appearance of Fat Amy as his laptop screen lock.

"Well, that girl really changed lives... just ask the president!" She laughs.

 _ **Give me that thing that I love (I'll turn the lights out/ I'm living for love) **_

_**Put your hands up make 'em touch** **(Make it real loud/ I'll gonna carry on) **_

_**Give me that thing that I love (I'll turn the lights out/ I'm living for love) **_

_**Put your hands up make 'em touch (Make it real loud/ I'll gonna carry on)**_

By the time they'd began the chorus some of them mixed another song to Lady Gaga's single, "Living for Love" by Madonna. The transition was made subtle and both songs sounded in unison until the second finally support the number. The transition was very well received by the audience that were already thrilled by the first song.

Listening to the impeccable presentation backstage, the new Bellas were nervous, to say the least. None of them have never been in a competition before, except for their captain who was not doing a good job of motivation since she was also inexperienced and her only successful performance was at Worlds. But Emily wasn't the leader back then, now she was all alone and with the task of guiding these nine girls that still practically unknown for her to a victory... or at least to a worthy presentation.

"Oh my God. We're suppose to beat these girls!? They even can do a mashup! That's our thing... well, was our thing." She could feel shivers going all the way down her spine, her stomach was aching and her body couldn't stay in place, pacing around frantically.

"Hey chill, Em. We can do it. We don't have a great number like them and we have absolutely zero chemistry between us and we will probably make fools of ourselves out there... BUT we have a good song! And you already won a World Championship, a Regional shouldn't be this bad..." A blonde girl with piercing blue eyes tried and fail to cheer the girl up next to her. Emily just stared at her with a _really, you're not helping at all_ kind of look, which was completely ignored by an optimistic grin.

"Oh come on Allyson, who need chemistry when I am here!? Just let everything with me and I will blow it up!" A brunette made herself heard. She was the only one of the group excited and overly confident that her exceptional abilities could handle the success of Bella's debut in this beginning of the season. Not realizing her attitude was just one of the causes of the problem pointed previously.

"Yeah. They'll choke so hard with their own tears when we win this thing that they gonna crawl back to their mother's womb..." Another girl with a very dark look and intimidating green eyes contrasting perfectly with her black hair, said with a psychotic smile spreading through her face. A deadly silence was formed until her too threatening sentence finally sink in.

"Anyway..." One of them tried to say to break the heavy air, but was interrupted when a guy from the staff warn them that they would be the next to hit the stage.

"Ok, you're right... we got this. I mean, _what could possibly go wrong!?_ " Barely composing herself, Emily made a sign to everybody join hands in a circle. That was a ritual, as her mom had said, that was supposed to boost the group confidence and sisterhood or something like that. "Let's make them choke with their tears!"

"...YEAH!?" All the girls screamed in unison after seconds of hesitation due to the strange addition that Emily has just done. However, Blake seemed pretty happy with her words actually being taken into consideration, the psycho smile never leaving her face.

"Good luck there, I hope you guys don't disgrace the Bella's name." The leader of Wrecking Belles said, erupting behind the scenes followed by her group since their performance had come to an end. "Would be a shame if this proud organization end it's been replaced because the new members are just a... catastrophe!" She sang the last word.

"Who the hell are you anyways!? You came out of nowhere and you're just a bad version of our group...not even your name is original." The brunette overly confident presented herself for a verbal fight, she couldn't control her momentum for fights and they were asking for it. Emily's eyes just walking between the girls, her mouth agape, trying to say something. She was uncertain if she should prevent that, whereas they were about to go on stage.

"Neither your boobs are..." She countered. Her companions letting out an audible "whooo" behind her along with some high-fives. The brunette just stared at her, incredulous and visibly shaken by this statement.

"Okay... We should go, we don't want to fight with you guys. Let's just not make a big deal of it. Right, Hailey?" Emily finally tried to calm things down.

"But they ARE a big deal!" Hailey replied, bringing her hands to her chest, making it clear what she really meant. "And for your bad luck they are original..." She added with a whisper. She smiled proudly when the girl in front of her averted her gaze letting out a huff.

"Yeah, yeah your boobs are great let's go." Emily spoke quickly, having to emphasize her last words by pulling the girl by the arm and leading the way of the Bellas to where they should be at a few minutes ago.

"Whatever... All of you bitches, never going to reach the feet of the old Bellas. Never. That's why we're going to destroy you completely and take the all-female crown." She was really angry, like the mission of her life was to take the new Bellas down (maybe it was). Emily didn't bore to answer and didn't look back, but the words made her think about it. What if they weren't good enough after all? What if they would just disgrace the whole Bella's legacy? What if _she_ would just disgrace the whole Bella's legacy (what would be a irony) now that's all on her shoulders?

"Is that it? But I actually want to fight..." The gothic said, but nobody really listened to her in their way following Emily, except for a tiny and shy Bella.

"I thought it was duel time!" She said half disappointed, half playful. Ivy loves making references, in fact, she only speaks through them and probably this was supposed to mean something, a line from some show or anime or anything because the little girl looked at her expectantly. All she could do was give her a I _don't get it, but I'll pretend that I did_ smile. Sadly for Ivy nobody seems to get what she says most part of the time.

"OH, here they are! The amazing BARDEN BELLAS!" The presenter finally announced the arrival of the girls. The public got them standing, some people held posters extolling their love for the Bellas. The exaltation of the audience and the success that the previous group of Bellas had left behind didn't fit anything to lower the nervousness of all members, at least almost all of them. Someone was definitely loving it and waving back like a real celebrity.

Emily's thoughts just ran through all the rehearsals and preparations that they had done until that time what if she stopped to analyze carefully, had not been many and most certainly were not enough. The truth is that she never had time to learn all the details of how to be a good "a-captain" and to create incredible choreography and great arrangements. She could not do by herself what Chloe and Beca were capable of. She was just an amateur composer who liked to write songs in the range between her classes and that was the only thing that she was really good at. But the Bellas wouldn't be competitive with just that.

Overwhelming desperation consumed her. She was a failure, she had created this number with only one original song and nothing else special about it! In addition the absolutely zero chemistry between them for sure would be responsible for the rest of the failures.

"Emily..." Someone whispered from her side. Now she noticed that she was staring at the audience with an expression of complete horror for a few minutes, the pitch pipe hanging from her hand, just waiting to be blown. When she finally comes to her senses, she allowed herself to take a deep breath and swallow the tears that threatened to fall from her eyes.

"One, two, three, four..."

 _What could possibly go wrong!?_

If Murphy was alive and had heard Emily at that moment, he probably would have laughed hard at such naivety.

Everything could always go wrong.

In the worst way possible.

 **I couldn't think in anything that could beat the Pukegate from the first movie nor the Muffgate from the second one (what could be more surprising than that!?), so basically I'll let you guys imagine the worst scenario that could happen and I would love to know your thoughts about it :)**


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you for who left reviews and for everybody that gave a chance to this story. Seriously, that means a lot to me. This chapter took a while to be finished mostly because I am really paranoid with my english, sorry about that. I think I need some of Fat Amy's confidence XD**

It was funny how life could change so much in a relatively short interval of time. Four years ago, which seemed like yesterday, Beca was arguing with her father if it was really necessary to get into college, but he convinced her with a little bit of blackmail to offer her a quick escape if she truly didn't like the experience, even after giving a chance to Barden. And Beca thought it would be simple, she could easily survive a year pretending to be blended in with the whole thing and then finally pack up and go to Los Angeles.

Well, she was wrong.

Completely wrong.

It would have been simple indeed, if a redhead hadn't crossed her path and held out a flyer for an a cappella group straight to her face. She didn't even know that was a thing, but that girl looked honestly passionate about it, if her vivid bright blue eyes shining while she asked to make her dreams into reality were some indication of that. It was inspiring somehow, but never that Beca would be part of something like that.

She was wrong.

Completely wrong.

Again.

And didn't take long to realize her mistake when the same redhead barged into her shower and made her sing "Titanium" with her. Beca would never admit it, but at that instant she saw a totally new perspective of music and of other things. She had always been capable of mix different sounds and obtain perfect harmony from them with her equipment, but she never considered in reach similar result with only two voices and nothing more. It was impressive and even more how Chloe Beale had managed to rip all the certainties she had so far with only two encounters. Chloe was able to do that, she could radiate her passion about things she loves through her eyes and smile, both too contagious to be simply ignored or declined and those could take you to make really stupid decisions if you're not careful enough and get yourself lost in them.

It was funny how life could change with such small details. Two encounters (and baby bright blue eyes) were all it takes. Two encounters (and an engaging smile) and Beca did the unthinkable for her: she joined an a cappella group. She did it exclusively because of the music (and because her dad ultimatum)... And maybe because she got genuinely touched by all the trust Chloe seemed to put in her. Nobody had never been really interested in her talents before, not even her dad was so supportive. For that reason, she could try to put her sarcasm and pride aside for a while and give that club a shot, at least to not disappoint Chloe.

With that, she accidentally started to love making music with nothing but her mouth (she will deny until her death that this sentence had ever crossed her mind). She accidentally started caring about her group of awesome nerds. And she accidentally started to tear her walls apart because deep down, she knew she could confide everything to those girls. Despite that conclusion only came to her after the only argument – and she hoped that was the last, she wouldn't bear be the one responsible for the hurt in Chloe's eyes again – about her internship.

Looking backward, she noticed that she was an idiot for not telling Chloe about that before, but she just has this thing... This damn thing that she runs to the most comfortable and easy way out. She didn't like confrontation, even if her badass attitude and rebel without a cause appearance, insists to scream otherwise. Beca could has convinced herself that Chloe was too obsessed with the World's that she would freak out if she discovered that she was focused on something else, but the truth was that Beca was just afraid to ruin everything. Afraid that she wouldn't be good enough to be a music producer and would let down the only person that always believed in her capacity.

But it's ok when everything ends fine.

The Bellas won the World's, she and Emily did a great job with "Flashlight", which secured her a position as an employee on the record label. Now she was way more than a nameless coffee maker and burritos's cater. Everybody there knew her, and other newbies were responsible to make her coffee and bring her burritos. She couldn't be happier with the direction her life turned out to be. Her wish of paying her dues working with music was carrying out and although she's not in LA, there isn't a place she'd rather be than in Atlanta where the people she cares most were.

Everything was perfect.

"Hey, Beca!" She was greeted on her way to her office. Yes, she'd an office now. Beca replied with a reserved nod, while another colleague held out a cup of coffee. Apparently she hadn't become an expert in social interactions even after a year working there.

"Oh, thank you." Said quickly, accepting the cup ready to follow her way when a colleague gave her a burrito.

"Hi, Beca! The boss wants to talk to you." The last sentence coming out with less excitement than the first one.

Or almost perfect.

Beca was not psychologically prepared to face her boss so early in the morning, she'd just arrived and the conversations between them were always stressful and filled with demands, demands that she had to kill in order to fulfill (not literally, of course).

She thanked the information with a small smile and redirected her walking, making sure to leave her coffee and burrito back somewhere before stopping in front of the door of her boss's office.

Through the glass windows she could tell that he was having a heated conversation with someone on the phone (although, due to his personality, she could have sworn that any conversation with him was like that). For a moment she hesitated, but her gaze was captured and he gestured for her to enter.

"Yes, yes, that's brilliant. We can use CGI for the animals. What? The Amazon forest!? What about a zoo? Right, what was I thinking... OK, I'll see what we can do. You're welcome, anything you want." He said his goodbyes, turning off the phone, sighing and visibly stressed.

Beca just waited, standing awkwardly in front of the door.

"Katy Perry... She wants an exotic clip. I say: Let's put some special effects! And she says: How about the Amazon forest? " Then I say: "Why not a zoo?" and she says: "Where the hell would be the fun in that!?" Paused, taking his hands to his face and rubbing it repeatedly to ease the tension. "Artists. Everything has to be huge! So, what do you want?"

Beca stopped for an instant to digest the question and the fact that it was Katy Perry that was on the other side of the line a few minutes ago. Be in contact with so many artists was something she still wasn't used to, not that _she_ was in contact with them, but you get the idea.

"Uh... nothing. I was told that you want to see me, so..." She trailed off, confused, gesturing to the door where she came from as if she could show the person who had taken her over there. Her hands feel this need to move a lot when she was nervous and that infuriated her, mainly because she couldn't help it. "... I came."

"Oh, that's right. Sit down." Realization finally appearing on his face. He indicated the chair in front of his desk, which the girl quickly filled. "So, Flashlight was a great success, right? You did a good job with that song and some people are really interested in your potential."

She only agreed, nodding, since she had no idea where this conversation would be taking her.

"And for some people, I mean, Jessie J..." He said casually, as if she wasn't someone extremely famous.

"Wait, THE Jessie J!?" She couldn't contain the grin of disbelief that spread through her face, but somehow she prevented herself from entering _fan girl full mode_ in front of her boss because that would be totally inappropriate... and shameful.

"The one and only. Anyway..." He evidently wasn't happy with the remark of the obvious. "Jessie J is really interested. She wants to put Flashlight on her new album and that's why she would like to work with the producer of the song... In that case: you." Beca couldn't believe what she was hearing. She imagined it was one of those moments in a dream, when came the best part and you just wake up to find out that nothing was real. She was expecting to wake up at any time, but her boss just kept talking.

"But she asked for a demo to see if your styles fit. You can't see it with only one song, right? And you see, Reggie? This is exactly the problem... You don't have a demo!"And that was the moment she woke up from the dream and was thrown straight into the arms, or more precisely, to the fists of reality. "So here's the thing: I want a demo with at least 12 good songs, you have one now."

That dream was suddenly turning into a nightmare.

"Look... you already proved to me that you're more than a DJ. You really are, your talent already excelled around here, but this song? This song just came out with help. You haven't showed us YOUR true identity as an artist, you showed us someone else's. Who was that? Elizabeth? Emma?" He snapped his fingers, trying to put his memory to work.

"Emily" It was all the words that her mouth could manage to say.

"Yes, that's it!" Pronounced, triumphant as if the girl had said exactly what he was thinking, which was not the case. All the names he thought weren't anything close to "Emily". "You have to be able to present your own things if you want to survive in this jungle. Do you think you can handle this?

"Oh, yeah... totes." _Totes? Where the hell this came from!?_

Beca desperately wanted to say no, of course not. It's still fresh in her mind all the time lost in front of the computer trying to magically make some lyrics appear on the screen, so she could create a melody for it and then the work was done. However, it was impossible for her. She didn't know how to compose and she sincerely had thought that she would no longer need to anymore after she had asked for Emily's help. Apparently she was wrong. For a change.

There were no shortcuts in this so-called jungle.

"Great, cool. Not the _totes_ , that was terrible.

"Trust me, I don't usually say this kind of thing..." An embarrassed smile escaping her lips.

"Yes, I know." Although he wasn't convinced because Beca had already demonstrated all her strangeness on the conversation department in the first conversation they had on the phone when she was assigned to the internship. "Just, bring Jessie J to us, okay? You can go home now." Said, dispensing her with a wave of his arms.

"What!? But I... I just got here."

"And you're just leaving. I want your full attention in this demo. It's a contract with Jessie J we're talking about here!" His index finger hit the table punctuating each word. "You have two months and I hope this is more than enough. You don't even have to show up while this business isn't done. Go!" His expression shouted _What are you waiting for? Get the fuck out!_ So, she doesn't wait for this to be verbalized and withdrew quickly.

Prying eyes resting on her while she got back her coffee and burrito (what? It was her breakfast, she wouldn't just leave it behind...) and took off the building, without raising her eyes from the ground.

Her head was working on thousand per hour. What the hell would she do!? She could sit calmly in front of the computer and try harder and see if anything came out. Perhaps she hadn't put so much effort on the first time.

 _Who am I kidding... I'm just going to stay two months facing the computer until it dies. It turns out that I have nothing to write about! OK, don't freak out. You are Beca Mitchell, the big B.M! You can do it._

Those words seemed to have much more effect when out of Fat Amy's mouth. She regretted that now she didn't have her Aussie friend around to share her confidence, even shared confidence of unpleasant places.

 _Maybe if I had accepted at that time. Dude no, gross!_ She shook her head. What she was thinking!?

The morning sun was already beating down on her pale skin. She took a deep breath and decided to do the most logical thing she could do right now: call Emily.

And with perfect timing, Beca's cell phone vibrated in the pocket of her jeans.

[Legacy] _I need a Bella's emergency meeting, like, NOW!_

It was the last message in the chat of the Bellas. They have created this chat, so they could always get in touch with each other since some of them were no longer in the city. And _always_ being taken very seriously because the chat was bombed messaging 24 hours a day and Beca was sometimes tempted to silence it, but give up immediately. That would be socially unacceptable and nothing cool with her friends (but they could at least stop texting at dawn...)

[Fat Amy] _Hey, the aca-nazi kidnapped the giant project?_

[Aca-bitch] _Haha, very funny. Emily simply was inspired by the best. Meetings are very important for organization and to maintain the bond between sisters always strong._

[Fat Amy] _OK, that's too many words. I won't read it._

[Chlo] _Aww, they grow up so fast. It seems like it was yesterday that we saw her rolling down the stairs :)_

[Flo] _Emily's in trouble? Tell us where you're in Morse code that we're going to rescue you. I learned back in my country, it prevents interception._

[Legacy] _Seriously guys, I need you. It's urgent!_

[Flo] _Urgent like, they will kill me and throw my body parts in a river if I say anything else?_

[Legacy] _?_

[Beca] _OK. I really needed to talk to you too. Where you want to meet?_

[Legacy] _You can come here? It's about the Bellas, we're having problems._

[Aca-bitch] _What kind of problems?_

Emily was taking too long to answer that question. As much as they had left the college, and consequently the Bellas. Aubrey didn't hesitate to intervene when necessary and if Emily was having problems she would probably do something about it... And let's say that her methods have never been exactly very encouraging.

[Legacy] _Problems like... We messed up everything in the Regionals. Our presentation was kind of a catastrophe... And our hegemony went down._

That was the worst thing she could have said. Beca was just waiting for Aubrey's explosion, which didn't take long.

[Aca-bitch] _Aca-scuse me!? We won this competition THREE TIMES IN A ROW! AND WE ARE WORLD CHAMPIONS! Tell me how exactly do you managed to screw this!?_

[Fat Amy] _Relax Aubrey you don't want to puke on your mobile_

...

[Fat Amy] _Just saying..._

[Aca-bitch] _That's unbelievable! Unacceptable! You will have a shock treatment for next season and will rise again or my name's not Aubrey Posen!_

A few seconds passed and Beca got into a car, without even taking her eyes off the screen. Jesse stared at her with astonishment, confused because he was about to leave after having her left at work. However, there she was.

[Chlo] _Aubrey just rushes out of here. I should follow her, right?_

[Beca] _Probably, unless you want the aca-baby dead. I meet with you in Barden._

[Chlo] _Okaaaay ;)_

Chloe was always overly excited, even through texts Beca was able to feel the excitement of the redhead and was practically unavoidable not to be caught up in that feeling. Besides, she'd meet Chloe (and Aubrey) a few minutes in Barden, there was no way to not be happy when she thinks about it, nostalgic even.

Jesse noticed that the brunette wouldn't give him attention any time soon. She was too interested in the last message she received, smiling at it, affectionate. That was an expression he wasn't used to seeing in Beca. He didn't want to interrupt, but his curiosity was stronger.

He forced a cough and this was enough to finally break her concentration.

"What's the deal with this _I saw a cute puppy_ face that you're doing?" Said, trying to imitate her expression.

"Oh, sorry. It's just... Bella's stuff..." She was actually surprised that Jesse was still parked there. And was she really doing this kind of face!? She doubted it.

"You get out of the Bellas, but the Bellas don't get out of you." He said, a smile playing on his face. "I told you before: you're an a cappella girl, I'm an a cappella boy and we're going to have aca-children. It's inevitable, we're marked for life with it.''

"This sounds even worse when you're sober, you know that?" She laughed, punching him lightly on the arm, trying to disguise how uncomfortable she felt when Jesse did this kind of joke. She knew it wasn't only a joke to him and as much as she likes Jesse, she didn't want that kind of commitment now... Maybe never. It was simply easier to keep things as they were. It was comfortable stay with their relationship just like this. She was afraid to delve more deeply into it and be giving up something else, which she considered ridiculous because there was nothing to lose, right? Jesse did everything to make her happy, there wouldn't be any regrets, would be? Then why the hell her heart remained in constant debate about it!?

"So, why did you leave so soon? Did something happen?" Now his feature carried concern.

"Yeah... can we talk about this later? Emily kind of need me now and I'm worried that Aubrey might kill her." Beca didn't want to get into the subject of her work, it was very recent and talk openly about it would just freak her out even more.

"Oh, sure..." He wasn't too pleased with the change of topic, but decided to not press Beca with it. It was something she did regularly, however, after four years together, he thought she would stop running away from him and would be more open about everything that concerns her. In the end, he convinced himself that it was just her way and there's no point in fight against it.

"And why Aubrey would want to kill Emily?"

"It's a long story..." She said, sighing and allowing herself to snuggle up on the car seat.

"To Barden, then?" The car finally had started to move.

"Yes."

The trip followed silently, which was unusual for them. Jesse always puts music on the radio to sing along or talks non-stop, but today he was quiet and Beca not even noticed such change. Her head still ran by the words of her boss and for solutions to her inability to compose.

"So, you want to do something later?" Jesse decided to break the silence, it was bothering him. "I don't know, maybe watch a movie. I know that you love movies, like, more than life." Smiled.

"Hey! Who did you learn this sarcasm from?" She laughed. Sarcasm coming from other places that were not from her, was strange to her ears. Strange enough to wake her from her reveries.

"I learned from the best! What's it going to be?"

"Yeah, for me it's fine, but no movies. I've been lobotomized enough with your movie-cation."

"Ouch, that truly hurts my feelings." He said, taking one of his hands to his chest and pretending to be extremely offended. "But that's okay, no lobotomy. How about dinner?''

"Okay, I think I can go with dinner." She shrugged, but she said it with a tone that made clear that she was kidding and not just being rude.

"You know, sometimes the only thing that ensures me that you're really human is the fact you like food."

"You're an idiot." She said, her characteristic smirk on her face.

"Yes, but you love me." Jesse stared at her for a while, but Beca never returned his gaze nor gave him an answer. It was in times like this, that Jesse started to wonder if Beca did this kind of thing on purpose or if she had any idea of her true feelings about him. No matter how hard he tried, always seemed to be a wall between them that prevented him from advancing further. And even when they had a good interaction as now, this wall kept him away. It was an obstacle that had become even greater after the World championship last year, or maybe even a little before that. He didn't know for sure, but something definitely had affected the way the brunette interacted with him. It was frustrating, it recalled him exactly like they were in the first year of college and it seemed that they didn't move from square one since then.

And apparently their relationship wasn't the only thing that remained untouched by all these years. The Barden University was the same, nothing had changed except for the new faces surrounding the campus.

"Here we are." He said excited. It had been a while since he went to the place and he has good memories of singing with the Trebles. It was what they said: college is the best time of your life, at least it was for him. "Isn't that cool!? This doesn't bring you memories?''

"Noisy and crowded... Yes, exactly the way I remember hating. Yay!" She feigned excitement. A bit of the old Beca to accompany the _returning to the past_ climate.

"Ok, I have to go now, but good luck with Aubrey."

"Yeah, I think I'm going to need it. After all, she is a professional dictator now." She smiled while getting out of the car and recalling the words of the blonde who said she had made a career on top of her controlling nature.

"You... uh, you want me to pick you up later?" He asked hesitantly. Beca had already closed the car door behind her and he couldn't help but be disappointed with the fact that she didn't give him a goodbye kiss before leaving the vehicle.

"No, I'm good. Thanks... see you later." A weak smile escaped her lips. She didn't like when Jesse acted as if she depended on him to get around. She could take care of herself. Actually, she had her own car, but he always insisted on taking her wherever she was going to and, like with most things in their relationship, she ceded... But there was nothing wrong with that, right? She gives in because she liked him (and because he wouldn't shut up if she didn't) and in a relationship is normal to give up a few things for each other, isn't it?

"Okay... see you later." The same weak smile was present in Jesse's face. He maneuvered the car and observed Beca almost lazily cross through the crowd of students and disappearing completely from his field of vision. An involuntary sigh left his mouth.

He realized that the only moments that Beca seemed to be slightly honest with him were when she was walking away from him or when she was singing on a stage.

She only allowed herself to put down her wall for him when she was on a safe distance.

And he was starting to get tired of trying to surpass this distance.


End file.
